Why do you cheer for the Red Wings?

76 posts in this topic

During the course of this season there have been several posters who have criticized this team's Coach, GM, Owner and all of the players (if not most of them). So, it got me to wondering: Why do you cheer for the Red Wings?

For me, I cheer for this team because of the character of the organization. From Illitch to Holland to Babcock and all the players. There is something about the members of the organization that seems to come across as competitive, yet humble. We have had some great players and some great success, and now in facing adversity, the players, Babcock, Holland and Illitch all seem to still be focused on winning.

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I started rooting for the Wings because they were the team that won the Stanley Cup the first year I started watching hockey. If that makes me a bandwaggoner, so be it. Oh yeah the Cup I saw them win was in 1955 so I guess that makes me a Connestoga waggoner. No matter how bad the posters of today think they are, they are by FAR better than the dead wings era.

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Grew up listening to the RW on the radio. I live in the Grand Rapids area and hockey wasn't on TV and going to a game was to far most of the time. Those of us in Michigan have been spoiled by some truely great radio men over the years: Bruce Martyn, Ernie Harwell, Ufer, etc.....

Hockey was almost dead in GR at that point. IIRC the greater grand rapids area was down to 2-3 sheets of ice in all of kent and ottawa counties. It was the radio and the Red Wings that kept the game alive untill PASS started in the mid/late 80's. Yes some of us remember when there was no cable TV.

As for the questions in the OP. Many of us have been fans for far longer than any player has played for the team, coach has coached the team, or even owner has owned the team. Like I said, fan since the 70's (was born in 69). I have cheered and cried a lot with the Wings. But that is the point. I cheer for the Wings. The pieces change, but the Wings are eternal.

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My mom's side of the family is from the Detroit area, so I was exposed to all of the Detroit sports teams at an early age - my first two sports shirts were a Detroit Lions shirt and a hand-made Red Wings jersey that I wish I still had that my grandmother made when I was a baby.

For whatever reason, likely because I was surrounded by s***zburgh fans in Pennsylvania, being a Red Wings fan was both a way to get attention and a way to get under their skin. Same with being a Buckeye fan (for some reason even though both my mother and all of her brothers graduated from Michigan, they never really exposed me to the skunkbears), all of the kids around me where either Ped State/Ntre Ame or FSU fans, so being a Buckeye fan was a fun way to irk them.

Guest The Axe

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I watched a tape of top 10 highlight goals back in the early 90s and some guy with a cool sounding name scored the # 3 and # 1 highlight goals on the list so I became a fan of him and the team. The player's name was Steve Yzerman.

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Why do people think that being a fan and being critical are mutually exclusive concepts?

If those who didn't get angry when the team plays like s*** didn't care about the team, they wouldn't get angry.

Though I understand how you came to that conclusion, I used the word critical instead of "hating." Criticism is something I welcome for the reasons you've said, however there have been some criticisms that come across as "I don't like anybody on this team or what they've done"

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I was 10 years old in 1997, and had never been into sports. After the rivalry really got hot with the Avs, my Dad starting watching the games and I joined him. I just clung to them for some reason, I had to play hockey, have Red Wings memorabilia and buy NHL video games after that. I remember as a kid those runs to the finals in 97/98 were so exciting. I can't remember which, but one of the years I had a youth soccer tournament the weekend before Game 4, and there were so many minivans in the parking lot with brooms sticking up out of their back windows. I've kind of secretely hoped the Red Wings would hit a (short) low period, to bring back some of that excitement. Seems like all of Detroits sports excitement goes to the Detroit Bandwagon, errr I mean Tigers.

I guess that makes me a bandwagon Red Wings fan. However, I've never boarded the wagon for any other sports teams. I find Football, Baseball and especially Basketball extremely boring and unexciting.

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Guest RedWingsDad

I like the character of the organization in general and specifically the former captains... it doesn't get much classier than Yzerman or Lidstrom. I grew up watching them occasionally, but really became a huge fan when me and my now wife found that we liked to watch the Red Wings together. Now, we never miss a game if we can help it.

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Have a lot of family In Michigan. My dad worked at Fleetwood cadillac when it was around and mom worked for GM. I had an uncle that worked for Ford (god rest his soul) another aunt and uncle that worked for GM as well. Moved to ten-o-see at a young age so the Michigan teams followed me. Now I live in Texas and still love all things Detroit and raising my kids to love the same=) No Texas teams for us here although I do love going to watch the Texas Stars play specially when the Griffs are in town.

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Oh, come on. Fans are allowed to be critical, especially if it's justified. If someone says that they "hate" this *team*(I don't mind if somebody says they hate a certain player - Emmerton, Quincey, etc), or that they are not going to watch this team until they put a Stanley Cup contender on the ice, then you can question their loyalty. But if someone calls out a player for playing like *bleep* or the coach for making an irrational decision, well, every other sports teams' fans in America, and the World, do that.

Me, I have NEVER been a fan of either Mike Babcock or Kenny Holland, from day 1, actually, and consider them to be two of the most overrated people in sports, and consider some of the fans who blindly defend them no matter what, to be kool-aid drinkers, but I have never not rooted for my Wings.

Basically, people are entitled to their opinions, right or wrong. As long as you are not rooting AGAINST The Wings, I have no problem.

Anyways, I cheer for the Red Wings because, growing up in Michigan, they are the team I grew up watching and have always rooted for, even through the "bad" years. GO BRUISE BROS.!!!

Edited April 10, 2013 by Hairy Lime

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Though I understand how you came to that conclusion, I used the word critical instead of "hating." Criticism is something I welcome for the reasons you've said, however there have been some criticisms that come across as "I don't like anybody on this team or what they've done"

If you have been a fan for many decades it is only natural that this team has very little in common with the team you used to cheer. That can be disappointing I guess.

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Why do people think that being a fan and being critical are mutually exclusive concepts?

If those who didn't get angry when the team plays like s*** didn't care about the team, they wouldn't get angry.

I think it's more a matter of the extent of the anger. Frustration, yeah. Anger - why? We have no control over how they play, and who the general manager and coaches choose to play on the team, Or for that matter, how the lines are formed. If you can deal with the fact that your anger only hurts you and nobody else (unless you go berserk and start attacking here on LGW), you can flail all you want to. I think anger is more about ego, and not helpful to anyone, mostly yourself. What I don't want to see happen here is that we go after each other because of our views.

By the way, I love this topic. It's a good time for it. If we stay on subject.

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I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, and knew about some of the famous/infamous players on the Hawks. Maybe it was because I wasn't old enough to get involved with any kind of hockey at that time. And I really didn't till we moved to Texas, and the Russian Five started playing together. They really weren't together all that long but oh god. How I loved to watch them work their magic and remove certain articles of clothing from the opponent's players. I have my faves. Konstantinov, Lidstrom, Yzerman, McCarty, etc., etc., etc.!!

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Cuz if I'd cheered against them, Dad'd have backhanded me and I'd have gotten no supper.

Same with the Lions.

Now it's in my blood.

Same here, except it was my two older brothers. And it wouldn't have been limited to just a backhand. I shudder to think what would have happened had I said anything less than complimentary about Gordie.

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